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Grace, my younger sister , started story telling at the age of 5. As soon as she reached Primary School she began writing in all forms. I have always loved her poetry which has never been published. Perhaps it is too personal and lovely for her to share. More’s the pity. This story is one I like very much and was glad to see it on my computer. Ruth Gannon

This was a great faery story! I can’t wait to hear more! The beginning, middle and end of story is written perfectly!
The idea—very, very clever. I am certain the writer of this story is part Fae, and her use of natural imagery woven within her story proves it. That is what true Fae stories do—-connect the natural world to the realm of human thought. Well done!

What a wonderful story!!!! I trully enjoyed it and was totally captivated from beginning to end. What a beautiful place for Sean. Thanks so much for sharing this story. This world’s cares take a toll on my magical memories and I start to forget. Thanks so much for remind me how awesome that magical world is.

Dear Kat – What a wonderful take! I have read many of the bestselling authors of the fictional world – of faeries and dragons and other magical beings and can see your stories up there with the best of them. If you’ve been off since 2006 – and have had as deep an interest as you do – I’m assuming there is a novel in amongst allof those short stories somewhere – Let the dust bunnies take care of themselves – of let your faeries take care of them for you and for the sake of the rest of us – get busy and get it published! I never, for an instant – thought my love of wonderful, embelleished clothing – which has always led to introductions to many warm and wonderful people in my life (since many nurses tend to be outgoing and take a more original approach to their wardrobe)- would lead me to a first peek at what cold be the new major fantasy bestselling author! Get busy woman! I can’t wait to read more! Thanks so much for letting me know! – Jill

How clearly our perspective on our own hurt and sorrow changes when that same hurt and sorrow threatens our children. Excellent endeavor that speaks well both of your humanity and yourself as a man able to speak on behalf of men and women facing such heartbreak, now all too common.

Loved the way you magically weaved the story so the end is the beginning….very clever….
Can not wait until part two…
The story did take me back to our younger days as kids when we explored the caves in Cedar Breaks where
the Indians used them to keep the food during the hot summers…and those cave ice cyrstals must certainly have been fairies…Love you very much, your little brother.

Dear Kat….as a babe, you I held in my arms in the land of your birth, California, and have oftened wondered how you “turned out!” … Richard put me in touch with this website only today….I love your gift of story-telling! Would you believe that I, myself, have penned a fairytale entitled “A Twice Old Tale” for the 65th reunion of my high school class in September…could this be a family trait? Please get in touch with me, Kat. My crystal ball is glowing!!! Auntie Betty Lou

Hi, dear Kat…another faulty Cranston Irish/fey family trait…we get so excited we forget that sometimes the “devil is in the details!” Correct my title to read: “A Tale Twice Told” (originally dictated by Iamma Imp (nondeplume) to and transcribed by…who else? 🙂 Reading your story for the second time…all that talent being thoroughly enjoyed!

I love the way you reconnected the two women on the train, the young woman in pink gloves and the woman observing her response to the “war of the sexes,” by having the woman purchase her own pink gloves, which indicates to me that after her interview she’s decided that “I really don’t care, anymore, I really don’t. I’m, like, so over it” when it comes to the “war of the sexes” in the business environment (witness the male banter before the elevator and derogatory remark by Shapiro’s “wingman”). So, did she get the job? I think I hear her saying, “Who gives a f***? I’m hungry.”

I, too, think the dialog was very natural. The changes of perspective and location were a bit of a challenge, but were handled masterfully and added to the essence of the story.

This is a beautiful and well written story. I loved the imagery……..though a sad story, somehow the nature described is comforting to the reader. The messages about life, love and loss are powerful. I feel honored to have read your story Nathaniel. Excellent job.

Excellent! And so, so true. I can just picture myself and siblings lifting back the ‘magic roundabout’ curtains waiting for santa to come. You know who I am and I’m very proud :o) Love it xxx Any more?

It is amazing how our lives are shaped by experiences we had growing up. This short story reveals many issues about life and the circumstances we are placed in, not always by choice, to achieve something we want. It certainly got me thinking.

where can i find the climax, and the summary of the story?
please help me because this story is my report in my school ^^…
thank you and GOD bless you and your family ^^….
take care always ^^ keep it up….

Whooo Hooooo! This was great! Very exciting ! I enjoyed reading this very much and I’m sure I’ll return back to it again and again. Nice Job! Congratulations on getting your story published on SSL. This beats Twilight 10×10! Your words are so eloquent, you had me at the first sentence. Great, terrific, stupendous ending!

Wow bettany17,
I do not know how to respond. I am flattered I was able to garner such a response from my work. Thank you so very much! I have my first book coming out in March…look for it on AMAZON, LULU and all of your other internet literary outlets. I appreciate you reading my work and your kind words in return.

Interesting. I have always been a fan of vampire lore. I must admit, though, I was a little lost in some of the description. But what do I know? I read Specifications all day and have to communicate with people that usually only have a 10th grade education.

I really like this story! One thing in particular – flashbacks can be annoying when not handled well These were great since the reader didn’t forgot where they were in the story and they added to the present.

Great story! I had not read this one before. I’ve always heard that authors write what they know, drawing from their own personal experiences and their individual family history. I never doubted that but this is the first time I’ve ever seen it in action. Seeing as how it is also MY family history, reading it gave me the feeling of familiarity and comfort.

This story drew me behind the costume into the private world of clowns that most never see. I enjoyed the insiders view of the clown’s frustration as he/she tries to land that big gig; and the twist in the end that was actually quite hilarious even though the clown thought otherwise.

Why thank you, Bettany, for your kind words and support. I’m most appreciative. This story caused quite a stir at my monthly writers’ group when we met a few months ago. Discussion of the writing quickly turned into debate on the perspectives of the two characters. I took that to be a good thing!

This is a very ponderous story for me. I wonder what’s going on beneath it all. I didn’t unfold how I expected and the ending sewed it all together in a satisfying way, but without giving away too much. Good job.

Good story. I liked it. The story develops through quick subtle strokes like a painting and then pushes the reader into the mystery. If the second half was shortened a bit it would have a stronger impact.

I don’t usually like romance, but I loved this. The story is loaded with feeling and anticipation. The psychology of the characters was realistic, but still interesting. I wanted to follow them into the relationship. I really enjoyed the strings of uninterrupted dialog. Very well done.

Didn’t I see this in an old movie called “THE BIRDS?’ To tell the truth, the story is better than the movie (as is usual.) A few lines, mostly poorly conceived, have been added to add contemporariness. But it really is a good story, well written.

I read this before, I believe on your blog. Read it again and still am in love with this story. This was so well written and a really intense read, Bomber. My favorite part had to be the very last line, it is something I will never forget.

This is a real beauty Bomber. Congratulations on getting it published on SSL. The imagery in A Brief Peace is astounding! I have only to imagine the sound of the planes and I’m there–right in your story. This is as close to time travel as one can get.

Bomber, a hauntingly lovely piece. No crtique from me, but warm thanks for creating the story.

One slight whinge however, the photo used on the front page of SSL to highlight your work is NOT a Wellington; looks more like an American B17 to me. Maybe get casey to pick another more appropriate one?

One appologises if one has put your nose out of joint vis a vis winning the jolly old skirmish. It’s always in the back of my mind that you old mud rats had a little something to do wth it all.
I trust you’re still keeping your muzzle clean…

Chris & Bettany.

You dear girls, I feel your appreciation deeply. Actually the inspiration for the story was borne from a line that Bettany had used in a post some time ago. So for that alone I thank you. I’ll send you both some nylons in the next airlift.

Bob,

I’m glad you liked it…

Dave,

Yes, the first thing I noticed was that the picture was incorrect. I let it go, simply because I want the story to do the talking. Also I would imagine that finding royalty free images to use is a bit of an issue for Casey.

Also credit must go to a chap called Rob, who gave the story a critical once over.

…the brief details helped create a unique character (one that varies for everyone who reads i’m sure…) The variety of detail you have creatively plugged-in captured an image in my mind probably based on my own childhood experiences. Funny!
Great work Elaine!

Thanks to everybody for reading my stuff and leaving comments. It’s both encouraging and invigorating. This site will be publishing a second short of mine May 10th and I have another short over at eskimopie.net. Again, thanks.

Thanks to everyone above for checking in with some really nice comments. How does it end? I think when the mother makes the decision to let her daughter go through with it, that’s the ending really. Never personally owned a Stingray Deluxe bike, but researched the 1966 model it so that the colors and parts were accurate. Was waiting for someone to comment on the background of war in contrast with the suburban ’safety’ zone. Casey, Short Story Library is a beautifully designed site; I feel honoured to be part of it. New online: my story The Atmosphere is Blue, just published by Foliate Oak in its April , 2009 edition. Now working on a new one that takes place in 1939, a tense and interesting year. Will struggle with it tomorrow, if only I can get beyond that blank screen.

Very creative. This one will stick because I’ve never read anything like it and if I do again I will just assume someone else read this story and copied it. Unique. It makes me interested in reading your other work.

As someone who has silently frequented this site for some time, I have seen many quality entries and postings, but never been moved to comment, if only because of my own cocksure prejudices of the non-printed written word, and the nihilistic despair that comes with that.

And yet, I found my own hardened cynicism rocked to it’s very foundation upon reading this; so much so that I felt I had to make some comment. Mr. Wiswell has shown such amazing talent at capturing the middle ground in the ever-present knife fight between classical Absurdism and the occasionally [and erroneously] reviled paronomasia. His talent with micro-fiction [or the more preferred “Single-serving, Anti-Realistic Nonfiction”] has literally unseated me, and I only hope to continue finding his work here at the Short Story Library.

Thank you all for the kind words. I’ve never gotten praise quite like Ryan’s, and it’s pretty flattering to think someone would imitate one of my creations at all. If you are interested in my other shorts, I have a blog at johnwiswell.blogspot.com, where I post at least one new piece of brief prose a day.

Thanks to the Short Story library for publishing this, and thank you all again for enjoying it. I love to make people laugh.

This is a wonderful story down memory lane; not mine, but my mother’s. I remember so well all the stories she told; the setting clear, the people familiar. I hear the baseball game, the Cleveland Indians I’m sure, as my grandfather listened on the radio, even though the game played on TV. The sensuality goes well beyond the senses, for we are intimately within Christine’s imagined world.

The suit held the memories and I felt like I crashed to the ground when Christine put the suit back on the rack. We were back in 2009. What a wonderful story and it lingers even as I write this. Awesome to coin a phrase.

Time stood still as I read this wonderful piece. I could smell the musky smells, feel the textures of the suit, unclasp the purse (which I am certain was red leather with a golden clasp). I wanted to stay in that shop with Christine and live in the rooming house, appreciating the simplicities of a time gone by…… thank you Patricia.

Thanks everyone for taking the time to read and comment on “Vintage”. It’s gratifying to know you’ve enjoyed the piece. Long live short stories! And Captain Dynamic, I’d happily be too Stephen King if it meant I could generate his level of income.

Lovely story, its so real. Sometimes we think the bad is taking over the good and we pray that the battle is won in favour of the good. Although I couldn’t understand what LL and DD stood for. What are their full names, if any. Please explain.

Wow! You hit the nail on the head, Patricia! If only moreof us were enlightened, maybe we could put a smile on LL’s face.
You made a very difficult thing to explain look so easy! Thanks Patricia. Its not often I read anything that fits the bill.

Excellent way to set the mood and surround the reader with what the subject is experiancing without using one word too many. It left me wanting to know more and that’s the thing I like about it; just the hint is all the reader needs. Anything more and the story would be too much.

You packed a lot of power into so few words. I liked that it was short because it would be like that moment of making a REALLY bad decision. When I go to work I drive over a bridge that has had several suicides and there is always, rain, snow, showers, or sun, a boquet of flowers at the highest point. I liked this poem very much. (Obviouslyl, I can’t capture what you capture in a few words!)

Karla;
you had me from the first sentence. most writers would start out “joe took the glasses down from the shelf on a crisp, white, wintery day. no, you started out with “I didn’t notice my sister had freckles until she was dying.” that’s a great beginning. it almost rivals the first sentence of Charles Bukowski’s novel POST OFFICE , where he wrote: “It began as a mistake.”
good job.
jy

Thank you for the comments. This story was inspired by my sister’s own battle with cancer. She had that same surgery and survived for almost a year afterwards. She was 10 years older than me and instilled in me a love of horses. That first sentence popped into my head one night, and the rest of the story unfolded from there.

Thank you for the comments, all. Drug addiction is a hard place to go in poem or fiction because unless you yourself have been addicted, it feels like too much. Really, this doesn’t even scratch the surface of everything that is addiction. A drug addict’s mind is a frightening and lonely place and as Roberta said, filled with anguish. It is a lonely disease. Thanks to each of you for reading and commenting.

Loved it!
Reminds me of the ‘hoarder’ too, I am one ,and also love my cowboy boots.
Like the way the earings tie up with the pillars and the magic ties up with the naughtiness of the affair with the ‘toy boy’.
You have to have a clear out now and again!!!

Love it…don’t get rid of that earring board!!!….Love the phrase ‘Sucking In Magic’…love the idea of magic of course..I was settling into the story, wondering what would happen to Connie, when….it finished. More please.

One of the strangest stories I have ever read. And one of the strangest notions I have come across – that anyone can be considered unflawed and in that way different from the rest of us. As if the two were from different planets.

I never agree with hypocrisy. I do like the good cheer of the unity symbolized by one ring, but I also like the three ring sign which symbolizes – in the light of the sun, the light of the moon, and the light of all minds on earth, a pledge of honesty. Maybe we should settle this earth shaking cereal controversy by switching to pretzels (from the root word meaning close to, near).

All through the story I expected the killing garage door conclusion but was hoping the writer would offer a surprise ending. Alas! Things continued in their mechanically predestined way. But I find the mother distasteful not for her “makeup on her broad forehead,” or her obese obtuseness, or for the coldness toward her unmissed husband or toward her son who she could not understand, and certainly not for expecting him to do some chores around the house and get a paying job, things he should do, but for (1) not doing those chores she herself was good at – mechanical chores and (2) not instructing her son and his girl friend to give time instead to the “cordon bleu with lox,” they having some interest in foodstuffs, a chore which would probably match equal kitchen time to repairing garage door time – fair and square. Whether the son’s chosen interests were as important as hers is irrelevant. Everyone needs time for chosen interests. And since when did she split the world into boy’s chores and girls chores?

Roberta, thanks for the comment. Well-aimed. I am glad that you felt the conclusion was inevitable, although mechanically driven. I don’t like Ivy Feine, either, because she is a snob as well as an abrasive personality.

Her division of the world was not by gender but by ‘important intellectual pursuits’ such as hers (astrophysics) and everything else. Just as bad as gender bias, I think. She figured the garage door problem was beneath her, albeit not beyond her.

Gail – I know she figured that, but all chores (and cooking is a merely a chore except to special hobbyists and chefs) are beneath everyone yet necessary for everyone. Repairing garage doors was a chore the mother seemed to know about and food preparation a chore the girlfriend seemed prepared to shoulder.

Re: GOING FOR A RIDE by Bob Burnett.
This fascinating story kept me engrossed throughout every tense minute of its reading. A real surprise is its upbeat ending which doesn’t break from a sense of reality. I enjoyed this detailed, well-written story very much.

I really enjoyed reading this (albeit incredibly sad). I liked the specificity of each of the characters actions…like Hector putting the bag over his head, or the individual way each of them drinks. It paints a rich color of the character without them having to say anything. And then they follow the trash at the end…TRAGIC!!!

Although well written with an excellent flow and detail, the story strains the “willingness to suspend disbelief” that the characters could maintain themselves for any length of time on drink only and not solid food. It would be easy enough to add some swiped, found, or offered food without much change in the sense of the story as a down-and-out adventure. Is it supposed to be a sort of fairy story highlighting such a mystery? Is that why Pablo was called a “devil”?

In AA circles, G.O.D. is abbreviated by some who have not embraced God as a higher, Personal being. The acrostic stands for Good Orderly Design. I don’t know if the author was alluding in the title at this reference as these drunks seek to live their life in a way they think is good but find that the orderly world around them keeps intruding. It is a gripping study of existence and denial where the four, who are unable to see their own filth, are given constant clues of something higher as they “follow the course” of the city trash barge down the river.

Maybe the protaganist should have waited to see some response toward him develop on her face before he started lip action. Impatience has lost a lot of different kinds of things for a lot a people. The resounding coda of the last line is also a trouble maker. What to do? What to do? Suppose instead of single-dating, boys and girls early got together in groups, most would sort out their own responses pretty quickly among themselves.

Well, I am biased for sure. That being said, this is one of the most touching and inspirational stories I have ever read.
Bob Magruder is a great and funny man, and Melonie Magruder is a tremendous writer and the love of my life. Nice work Beautiful;)

I’m not too worried about Bean. As soon as he gets out with some interesting people his ideas will proliferate. It’s not good for man to be alone.

When I was a kid we used to play the opposite game: drop a burning match into the bottleneck, quickly place a hard boiled egg on the bottleneck opening and the egg will woosh unbroken into the bottle. Were we playing angels?

Lovely, vivid, touching piece, about a man I have the good fortune to know, and regard with love and admiration (and SO much laughter), along with the beautiful-inside-and-out Patsy. Wonderful piece, Melo.

Larry King once stated, “I remind myself every morning: Nothing I say this day will teach me anything. So if I’m going to learn, I must do it by listening.” That is precisely how I feel. I am grateful to have learned something new today. – Tenis